Deer browse on sapling and so stop trees growing – and obstacle to rewilding (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty) Deer, bears and wolves While Dorette and Eti are fresh arrivals, 77year-old Val Green, whose land abuts Dorette’s, has lived there for nearly 50years. During that time, she’s overseen aquiet transformation which has helped nurture something of anatural revival, too. A hook letter about the real-life inspirations behind the novel is available here: Rewilders Letter

Meanwhile, on the 21 st century ground, some initial work is underway. At Beldorney, which had been ​ “grazed to extinction” as Jeremy puts it, sheep have been replaced by asmall number of cattle using all-year-round mob grazing methods, which both break up the turf to stimulate avariety of new plant growth and allow the land to recover in between. Over at Bunloit, alocal farmer who was grazing sheep on part of the estate has agreed to swap them for Highland cattle, on the samebasis. The situation takes a terrifying turn when the children pitch their tents on a bleak Highland moor and hear wolves howling outside… (synopsis from book cover)Get it right, she says, and the environmental benefits will extend way beyond Langholm. The towns downstream on the Solway catchment face ​ “something of aflood risk. So anything we do up here by way of restoring peatlands, planting forests, conserving wetlands, will all help slow the flow ofwater.” Instead of trophic cascades created by predators, in Europe, the herbivores were restoring ecosystems, making wallows and burrows, eating small trees or damming up waterways. Each of these activities created new habitats like ponds, meadows and coppices, where a whole range of biodiversity flourished. She and her late husband Tony, initially along with his father and brother Philip, ran atypical mixed Devon farm, but by the mid- 90s,​“we were fed up with never going anywhere, never doing anything. We hadn’t had aholiday for 30years.” They shifted into forestry – planting their land with amix of conifers and broadleaves. All that is, except for alittle 10-hectare jewel of Culm grassland.

Rohini loves supporting others with deep healing as they wake up to their true nature. She is sought out for her specialization in Spiritual Psychology. You can listen to her podcast Rewilding Love where she and Angus help a couple on the brink of divorce. Humans have, generally, reduced ‘stochastic disturbances’ – that is, unpredictable events which can cause ecosystems to be reshaped, like flooding and fire. These events are part of a healthy habitat, alongside natural processes like rivers wiggling over time, ponds silting up and trees dying. On an ideal rewilding project, natural processes are allowed to run more freely – animal carcasses are left to rot down (creating food for scavengers), rivers flood their floodplain (if this poses little danger to humans) and tree limbs rot down where they fall (returning nutrients to their roots). Olly, meanwhile, is focused on marketing his produce direct online, ​ “telling the story of what we’re doing here”. He’s also exploring a CSA (community-supported agriculture) model, too. ​ “It would be really good to be working more on alocal scale.” Finally got this to the top of the pile - having read The Titanic Detective Agency I had to read this too!Ecotones’ are a key principle in rewilding – they’re the gradual shift in plant life (and associated animals etc) which you find at the edge of a habitat. A pond edge is a good example – some plants spend their whole lives underwater, while others only tolerate wet roots. If pond levels change over time (which they do in dynamic systems) and new ponds are created (think pig wallows), then ecotones are shifting and forming constantly. This is the same at the edge of habitats like woodland, which advance and recede over time. In rewilding, this movement is not only natural – it is to be encouraged – we celebrate the value it has for biodiversity, creating many new environmental niches. But also the bullying that some children have to put up with, and others go along with because they are scared of being on the other side, on the receiving end, of the nastiness. Both children's characters are well written. They each have their own issues to deal with. Some visitors, says Lee, are alittle disappointed that it doesn’t depict more of arevolution. But that’s to underestimate the changes that are already underway. Where once there were bare slopes, sheep-cropped down to the turf, now they are sprinkled with bushes and young trees, some planted, some naturally emerging. In the tree nursery at Naddle Farm, seedlings of juniper, aspen, alder, willow, birch and oak are carefully nurtured, ready for planting out on thefells. Another estate next to land owned by Polvsen has fared worse, with stag numbers falling from 45 to seven. Now it is up for sale.